National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is set to testify before the Sept. 11 panel today in a new chapter in the bizarre relationship between the Bush administration and the ten-member panel investigating the government’s failure to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.

Beginning the strange story is Bush’s original refusal to even want the investigation. It’s beyond explanation how, after the worst foreign attack on U.S. soil in history, the president didn’t support the panel’s creation.

After widespread criticism and distrust mounted, Bush finally agreed to support an independent panel to investigate Sept. 11. That was September 2002 — a full year after the attacks.

How quickly we forget the past. This is the guy whose every other spoken word is “terrorism” and sees himself as The One to protect Americans from evildoers. By the time Bush decided it important to investigate why more than 3,000 Americans died on that day, he had already signed into law the 342-page- long Patriot Act and gone to war in Afghanistan. In other words, he was using Sept. 11 as a pretext for radical domestic and foreign policy without even supporting the investigation into the attacks.

This is commonly referred to as putting the carriage before the horse: taking action while skipping the prerequisite deliberation and consideration. The issue isn’t whether making Americans less free is “good” or if the Afghanistan war was right — what’s troubling is that Bush used Sept. 11 to shape government policy without even wanting to understand the governmental failures that allowed the attacks to happen.

Americans should ask why. In whose best interest is it to not allow a full and complete investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks? Only two answers come to mind: those who wish to harm America, … la Sept. 11, and Bush’s re-election campaign — if there is something dirty to hide.

If the White House had clean hands and refused to support investigation, it would be a huge political blunder — definitely not in Bush’s best interest. However if the White House doesn’t have clean hands and its dirty secrets are revealed, there’s no telling what may happen.

There is much to hide, given the Bush administration’s foot dragging and unwillingness to cooperate with this very important investigation. Are these tactics designed to thwart the investigation while allowing the administration to claim interest in uncovering the facts behind the Sept. 11 attacks?

Until recently, Bush had agreed to meet with the panel for only one hour and only with two of the panel’s 10 members. After Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry began pointing out the president had better things to do than get to the bottom of Sept. 11, Bush agreed to spend more time with the panel.

Why should political popularity have anything to do with the investigation?

While Bush flip-flopped and agreed to spend more time with the panel, he won’t be doing it alone: Vice President Dick Cheney will go in with him.

Why does Bush need Cheney to hold his hand? Do White House aides lack confidence in Bush to allow him to appear by himself? What are they up to?

This time all 10 members will participate in the testimony, raising the question of why Bush stipulated that he would only meet with two of the panel’s members when facing them alone.

In the latest Bush flip-flop (something he loves accusing Kerry of), and which brings us to today—the president reversed his stance on Rice testifying before the panel. He originally argued that preserving executive privilege trumped getting to the bottom of Sept. 11. Again, after criticism mounted, Bush reversed course and made strong claims in support of Rice’s testimony.

In fact his exact words were: “I’ve ordered this level of cooperation because I consider it necessary to gaining a complete picture of the months and years that preceded the murder of our fellow citizens.” That’s quite a different story than we’ve already heard, where President Bush originally didn’t even support the panel’s creation and more recently felt Rice’s testimony to not be “necessary,” as he put it.

Which George W. Bush are we supposed to believe? When viewing Rice’s testimony today, we must take a critical view of her word and check her statements against other assertions and known facts. The administration is hiding something.